Show THE SUCCESSFUL APPLE ORCHARD By W S Huscr Wisconsin The Hems that make for success In an apple orchard aro Soil surface soil and air drainage varieties culture cul-ture marketing and last but not least bruins and a determination to succeed suc-ceed The best soil without dobut Is a porous clay loam verging toward a sandy texture such as originally grew maple elm linden nnd beech timber although many times ptno timbered land Is equally good My experience has led mo to believe that lime soils aro essential Orchards should bo elevated abovo the surrounding country or rolling to give sufficient air and soil drainage Right here I want to say that I consider con-sider air drainage either by elevation or slope qf site to he very important as bearing on blight and other fungus diseases However wo have some orchards or-chards on comparatively level sites that are made fairly well I have mado some experiments In tile draining drain-Ing heavy clay land and do not think It of much value for If you put your tile very deep tho vater will not get to It and If shallow the roots from the trees will soon clog them completely com-pletely besides tho danger of frost wrecking them Right hero I expect to strike trouble as every grower whom I have approached on tho subject has some choice variety and no two anywhere nearly agree Every successful grower must and will be governed by what succeeds In his locality lo-cality and particular soil Cultivation In some way Is absolutely abso-lutely necessary either without other crop or with some boo crop I have usually used tho latter Have lately been planting bquashes in such manner man-ner us will least Interfere with two horse cultivation as I find two horses most convenient und economical What tools I do not think that Important as long as you cultivate I never have used tho socalled combination com-bination of cultivation and mulch system sys-tem As I have seen It practiced it seems to mo to he a sort of lazy uians excuse for poor cultivation Spraying Is I practiced by a few of our larger growers Others do not think It would pay while others sin ply neglect It As a general thing the newer sections have less need of spraying yet In alt places thinning of fruit Is abundantly repaid by the Increase In size quality and quantity to say nothing of tho conservation of vitality of tho tree Selling at tho best advantage Is sometimes as much of an art as producing pro-ducing Ordinarily there Is a largo home demand If not at picking time within two months I have kept Wealthys until the holidays when I i received 1DO per bushel There wero no other homegrown apples to be had In some instances If local markets mar-kets cro not good It Is advisable to wwwww sell as soon as picked to buyers who have storage which way must be determined by conditions But to the man who has time to devote to seeking seek-ing markets I would say keep as long us you safely can and then sell ns directly to the consumer as possible Manj of our small growers tire getting get-ting good prices this way Last but not least and perhaps tho most discouraging because hard to guard against are mice rabbits and pilferers With clean culture and a small mound of earth about the hasp of tho tree over winter there ordinarily ordina-rily Is but little damage done by mice Yet two years ago I had the mice comd on top of snow In March and gnaw the bark from six to thirteen Inches above the grounds on the trees of the outside rows Wire screens would have protected them Hut screens are of but small protection for rabbits for their worst work Is done while tho snow is deep and they can easily reach the branches The best methods meth-ods 1 find aro to trap and snare them I |